Southern California -- this just in

Slain ICE agent's 14-year-old son arrested on suspicion of murder

May 3, 2012 | 7:46
am

The 14-year-old son of a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot to death Wednesday night at their Carson home has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials said Thursday

The agent, whose name has not been released, was killed by a single shot fired into his house in the 19300 block of Broadacres Avenue shortly after 9 p.m., investigators said.

Lt. Holly Francisco said the son, who has not been identified, is alleged to have fired one shot from the backyard with his father's ICE-issued handgun.

The agent, who is about 40 and had been with ICE for four years, was in a TV room on the ground floor when he was wounded in the head, Francisco said. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The agent's girlfriend also lived at the house but was not there at the time of the shooting, authorities said.

A motive for the shooting had not been determined, she said.

"This was a domestic violence incident," she said.

ICE agents and sheriff's homicide investigators were at the house this morning. Police tape blocked access to the house, in a residential neighborhood of one- and two-story homes. About two dozen ICE agents gathered for a few minutes and then left, some wiping away tears.

"I am deeply saddened to report that one of our ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents died tragically at his home in the Los Angeles area overnight," ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.

"This is a difficult time for the family and loved ones of the agent, and for everyone at ICE," he said. "Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers."

It was the second fatal shooting of an ICE agent in the Los Angeles area this year.

In February, a confrontation between agents at the Glenn M. Anderson Building in Long Beach erupted in gunfire that left one agent dead and another seriously injured.

Authorities said Ezequiel Garcia, 45, who supervised a Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, wounded Deputy Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kozak, 51, in his upper torso, legs and hands before being shot and killed himself by a supervisor.